I was tricked into commenting on a conservative blog that is actually a parody. Everyone must be in on the joke because I received a comment two seconds after posting it. I stand behind everything I said against it, but to save myself further embarrassment, I will delete everything except one paragraph.
J.K. Rowling wrote a series of books about an abused boy who finds a way to compensate for his helpless life by achieving greatness in a fantasy world of witchcraft and wizardry. The Harry Potter novels are no different than the Chronicles of Narnia, a series of books written by a christian. In fact, J.K. Rowling is a christian herself. SHOCK! Of course, if fundamentalists would chill out and actually enjoy her fiction without imagining it being written by the hand of Satan, they might notice that Harry celebrates Christmas with his Godfather; they might also read some Christian symbolism written into the stories. But I guess that would be too much to ask.
There ya go!
September 18, 2008 at 3:07 pm |
Second that! I have not yet been pulled into an anti-Harry argument, but I try to stay away from them to keep myself from totally losing it. As a huge fan of the series, I agree, there are so many lessons that can be pulled from the stories, and in a format children and adults can enjoy!
Think a lot of Christians had to eat their words after Book 7, but some just don’t get it.
What’s good reading is good reading. Period.
December 29, 2008 at 8:05 pm |
I saw this as I was going through the archives – sorry to comment so late! Years ago, I was quite enthusiastic about Christianity and I wound up working for Focus on the Family for a while (interesting bunch, very nice individually but I found it got scary as it scaled up). While I worked there, in the Constituent Response department (sort of a mix of customer service and a general answer desk), the organization broadcast some radio dramatizations of the Chronicles of Narnia. I received more than one phone call complaining that such a good Christian organization would broadcast something so Satanic. Those calls got transferred to a special department full of very patient people who would carefully explain who C. S. Lewis was and that, you know, he’s somewhat respected in Christian philosophical and literary circles. I was sorely tempted to suggest that maybe the callers read a book OTHER than the Bible, but I restrained myself.